Life imprisonment for “aggravated homosexuality”

UGANDAN President Yoweri Museveni has signed a bill criminalising homosexuality overnight.

The bill provides penalties for first-time offenders of up to 14 years in jail and life imprisonment for repeat offenders found guilty of “aggravated homosexuality”, which is defined as repeated gay sex between consenting adults as well as same-sex acts involving a minor, a disabled person or where one partner is infected with HIV.

The bill, introduced first in 2009, originally included a death penalty clause for some homosexual acts.

The law also makes it a crime not to report anyone who breaks the new law.

Yoweri Museveni sighted ‘scientific evidence’ from Ugandan scientists proving there was no genetic basis for homosexuality as his reason for backing the bill.